As I was writing my latest book, Be a J.E.D.I. Leader, Not a Boss, I began contemplating solutions for each of the key pillars – justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Believing that inclusion is the toughest to truly quantify in corporations, I set myself to the task of designing a solution that would make the process of creating belonging and two-way exchange in businesses much more straightforward. Leaning on my previous entrepreneurship experience in the interactive communications space I decided to disrupt the existing audience response paradigm by dramatically enhancing the value for the specific purpose of augmenting inclusion.
In 2010, I worked for Unison – an interactive communications start-up looking to enhance participation and engagement in meetings with a comprehensive interactive application called Captivator. We developed and launched one of the first fully operational web apps for participant engagement in the world – but were unable to breakthrough due to a lack of internal strategic alignment and funding. But I always planned to get back into this space because I am quite passionate about turning one way didactic communication into an interactive and safe space where real business problems can be solved by leaning into the wisdom of the crowd. So, I have invested my own money to bootstrap such a solution.
As more leaders recognize the important role of diversity, equity, and inclusion as not only business boosters but also risk mitigators, they have begun to direct investment into this space. However, DEI leaders are a bit hamstrung by surveys when it comes to measuring inclusion initiatives. TYMPO will transform a theoretical concept into a tangible one by highlighting all the diverse voices in an enterprise and allowing them to have a louder voice as it relates to strategic and financial understanding, agreement with key actions and initiatives, and alignment with their roles. By doing so it will add teeth to a previously toothless (and thankless) task of proving that inclusion exists within a given corporate space. The data is undeniable as is the trust that will be gained when senior leaders truly lean into inclusion by listening to all the voices and going beyond majorities.
In contrast to the typical audience response applications on the market – TYMPO was designed to enhance inclusion – not general audience sentiment or engagement. Gone are frivolous polls in favor of targeted engagement on the issues that matter – understanding, agreement, and alignment. Free text is finally linked to a specific category so gone is endless scrolling through varied sentiment. And after the forum, there is a transparent issue resolution matrix that will build trust by visualizing progress against agreed upon actions post forum. The app was also designed for full anonymity for participants so they can be sure when they contribute they won’t be or can’t be singled out by management.
Executives familiar with traditional audience response applications will find a lot to like in TYMPO’s targeted and sleek functionality. It has the familiar features like polling, questions, and voting, with the added boost of real-time drill downs by demographic and reporting by key demographic. And the pricing model is very attractive for continual users. It is the most focused app for this purpsose and this is just the beta!
For Experienced Audience Response Users and DEI Leaders, TYMPO is an impactful solution for employee inclusion that will make quantifying employee inclusion and enhancing organizational trust easier than ever before, because it elevates the voices of all employees during the most crucial business meetings (Town Hall, All hands, Annual Conferences, Ask Me Anythings).
We are building out our team, pitching investors, and seeking beta testers. If you would like more information in any of these regards please contact us.
